Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a well-known and valuable method of first aid. CPR is used to resuscitate people who have suffered from cardiac arrest after heart attack, electric shock, chest injury and many other causes. During cardiac arrest, the heart stops pumping blood, and a person suffering cardiac arrest will soon suffer brain damage from lack of blood supply to the brain. Thus, CPR requires repetitive chest compression to squeeze the heart and the thoracic cavity to pump blood through the body. Very often, the victim is not breathing, and mouth to mouth artificial respiration or a bag valve mask is used to supply air to the lungs while the chest compression pumps blood through the body.
It has been widely noted that CPR and chest compression can save cardiac arrest victims, especially when applied immediately after cardiac arrest. Chest compression requires that the person providing chest compression repetitively push down on the sternum of the victim at 80-100 compressions per minute. CPR and closed chest compression can be used anywhere, wherever the cardiac arrest victim is stricken. In the field, away from the hospital, it may be accomplished by ill-trained by-standers or highly trained paramedics and ambulance personnel.
When a first aid provider performs chest compression well, blood flow in the body is typically about 25-30% of normal blood flow. This is enough blood flow to prevent brain damage. However, when chest compression is required for long periods of time, it is difficult if not impossible to maintain adequate compression of the heart and rib cage. Even experienced paramedics cannot maintain adequate chest compression for more than a few minutes. Hightower, et al., Decay In Quality Of Chest Compressions Over Time, 26 Ann. Emerg. Med. 300 (September 1995). Thus, long periods of CPR, when required, are not often successful at sustaining or reviving the victim. At the same time, it appears that, if chest compression could be adequately maintained, cardiac arrest victims could be sustained for extended periods of time. Occasional reports of extended CPR efforts (45-90 minutes) have been reported, with the victims eventually being saved by coronary bypass surgery. See Tovar, et al., Successful Myocardial Revascularization and Neurologic Recovery, 22 Texas Heart J. 271 (1995).
In efforts to provide better blood flow and increase the effectiveness of bystander resuscitation efforts, modifications of the basic CPR procedure have been proposed and used. Of primary concern in relation to the devices and methods set forth below are the various mechanical devices proposed for use in main operative activity of CPR, namely repetitive compression of the thoracic cavity.
The device shown in Barkolow, Cardiopulmonary resuscitator Massager Pad, U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,615 (Feb. 18, 1986), the commercially available Thumper device, and other such devices, provide continuous automatic closed chest compression. Barkolow and others provide a piston that is placed over the chest cavity and supported by an arrangement of beams. The piston is placed over the sternum of a patient and set to repeatedly push downward on the chest under pneumatic power. The victim must first be installed into the device, and the height and stroke length of the piston must be adjusted for the patient before use, leading to delay in chest compression. Other analogous devices provide for hand operated piston action on the sternum. Everette, External Cardiac Compression Device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,619 (Nov. 2, 1993), for example, provides a simple chest pad mounted on a pivoting arm supported over a patient, which can be used to compress the chest by pushing down on the pivoting arm. These devices are not clinically more successful than manual chest compression. See Taylor, et al., External Cardiac Compression, A Randomized Comparison of Mechanical and Manual Techniques, 240 JAMA 644 (August 1978). Other devices for mechanical compression of the chest provide a compressing piston that is secured in place over the sternum via vests or straps around the chest. Woudenberg, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitator, U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,098 (May 12, 1987) shows such a device which is powered with an air cylinder. Waide, et al., External Cardiac Massage Device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,148 (Mar. 21, 1995) shows another such device which is manually operated. In another variation of such devices, a vest or belt designed for placement around the chest is provided with pneumatic bladders that are filled to exert compressive forces on the chest. Scarberry, Apparatus for Application of Pressure to a Human Body, U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,478 (Jun. 29, 1993) and Halperin, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Assisted Circulation System, U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,674 (May 29, 1990) show examples of such devices.
Several operating parameters must be met in a successful resuscitation device. Chest compression must be accomplished vigorously if it is to be effective. Very little of the effort exerted in chest compression actually compresses the heart and large arteries of the thorax and most of the effort goes into deforming the chest and rib cage. The force needed to provide effective chest compression creates risk of other injuries. It is well known that placement of the hands over the sternum is required to avoid puncture of the heart during CPR. Numerous other injuries have been caused by chest compression. See Jones and Fletter, Complications After Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, 12 AM. J. Emerg. Med. 687 (November 1994), which indicates that lacerations of the heart, coronary arteries, aortic aneurysm and rupture, fractured ribs, lung herniation, stomach and liver lacerations have been caused by CPR. Thus the risk of injury attendant to chest compression is high, and clearly may reduce the chances of survival of the victim vis-á-vis a resuscitation technique that could avoid those injuries. Chest compression will be completely ineffective for very large or obese cardiac arrest victims because the chest cannot be compressed enough to cause blood flow. Chest compression via pneumatic devices is hampered in its application to females due to the lack of provision for protecting the breasts from injury and applying compressive force to deformation of the thoracic cavity rather than the breasts.
CPR and chest compression should be initiated as quickly as possible after cardiac arrest to maximize its effectiveness and avoid neurologic damage due to lack of blood flow to the brain. Hypoxia sets in about two minutes after cardiac arrest, and brain damage is likely after about four minutes without blood flow to the brain, and the severity of neurologic defect increases rapidly with time. A delay of two or three minutes significantly lowers the chance of survival and increases the probability and severity of brain damage. However, CPR and ACLS are unlikely to be provided within this time frame. Response to cardiac arrest is generally considered to occur in four phases, including action by Bystander CPR, Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support, and the Emergency Room. By-stander CPR occurs, if at all, within the first few minutes after cardiac arrest. Basic Life Support is provided by First Responders who arrive on scene about 4-6 minutes after being dispatched to the scene. First responders include ambulance personnel, emergency medical technicians, firemen and police. They are generally capable of providing CPR but cannot provide drugs or intravascular access, defibrillation or intubation. Advanced Life Support is provided by paramedics or nurse practitioners who generally follow the first responders and arrive about 8-15 minutes after dispatch. ACLS is provided by paramedics, nurse practitioners or emergency medical doctors who are generally capable of providing CPR, drug therapy including intravenous drug delivery, defibrillation and intubation. The ACLS providers may work with a victim for twenty to thirty minutes on scene before transporting the victim to a nearby hospital. Though defibrillation and drug therapy is often successful in reviving and sustaining the victim, CPR is often ineffective even when performed by well-trained first responders and ACLS personnel because chest compression becomes ineffective when the providers become fatigued. Thus, the initiation of CPR before arrival of first responders is critical to successful life support. Moreover, the assistance of a mechanical chest compression device during the Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support stages is needed to maintain the effectiveness of CPR.